Visiting the Leopard Avengers

This weekend I was in Caen (14) to visit the local Leopard Avengers for a Sunday Workshop in an amazing roller hockey hall, with a perfect smooth ground and a glass roof, which was part of an impressive sports complex, two steps away from the city hall downtown!

MY TRAIN WAS LATE.

I missed my 16:10 train so I took the next one.

Who's Next: Snow (Hey Ho!)

The winter 2013 Who's Next fashion and ready-to-wear show was held on the occasion of the Parisian Fashion Week, at Porte de Versailles, just like this summer.
For a thorougher description...

The Winter version of Who's Next was indoors only, contrary to the Summer version where we were treated with bales of straw... which was +1 for the summer atmosphere but -10 for the slipperiness!
This time, snow was covering the whole city outside, while a strong tropical climat hung heavy inside thanks to the heating and the spotlights. Those same carpeted grounds with conceiled sewer drains underneath would make us trip at random, but hey ho! We knew what to expect!

Paris RollerGirls 2012-13 Season. Booked.

All of you who keep on asking me for bout dates... 

Here is the full calendar of the Paris RollerGirls' season, both for the All-Star (A) and the Quedalles (B) Teams!

Ready to book?

Bad timing...

Lately, I translated an article on the optimal moments of the day to go skating, according to your body rhythms.

FRENCH and ENGLISH versions
on online-skating.com

Obviously, it works for skating as well as for any physical activity: the article breaks down the different times of your body's circadian cycles (internal clock) as well as its chemical reactions to those different phases... and concludes with the best time slots to be active according to your body's awakeness.

The specific vocabulary is obviously explained with everyday words, and the article highlights the main ideas of the concept.

I am not writing a post to advertize for it, though:

As soon as the first lines, it re-activated forgotten memories carefully filed in a corner of my brain.

Sunday Workshop in Angers

This weekend, I took the train to Angers (Fra, 49) to run a full-day workshop for the young local league. 

I arrived on Saturday evening, and was welcome by the two girls I was staying at and the coach. After a healthy dinner, we went for a teaching equipment "shopping" session at their practice place, before heading to the Irish pub nearby, where we met a few of the rollergirls who would attend the morrow's workshop.

The workshop gym was booked from 9 to 6, which left plenty of time to get organized, talk, eat, have breaks... We finally started at 10 after everybody had found where the gym was, which was pretty tricky on a foggy Sunday morning.

Bootcamp Team France "Born to Reform"

A dozen members of the 2011 French selection who made it to the World Cup in Toronto (Dec.'11) gathered to organize a huge advanced French bootcamp on January 5-6, 2013, entitled "Born to Reform". The aim was to share experience throughout on-skates and off-skates classes and conferences.

The event was divided into three different cycles: skater / coach / staff, with specific classes according to the cycle you had applied to.

Honestly, I would have loved taking part in that bootcamp.
Coaching was fun too, though.

Paris RollerGirls 2012 Compilation

"New Year" often rhymes with "Previous year" flashbacks and anthologies.

Here is one that comes just at the right moment featuring the Paris RollerGirls, with shots from bouts and demos, public footage on the track, private footage in the changing rooms, a good series of hits and falls, stolen moments... all compiled by Marie Coquand.

Will you find who is where?

Enjoy the show!

Paris Roller Girls_Compil 2012 from Marie Coquand on Vimeo.

RELATED POSTS:

• Derby Presentation for Gumbies
• Roller Derby explained by PRG
• 2012 Visual Identity for the Paris RollerGirls

If I could turn back time

2012 has been the stage of an unprecedented act in my life. I am glad to close it, almost 13 months to the day after the accident, a few hours before celebrating 2013.

13 months later... Epilogue.

Indeed I am just out of my last rehab stay: three weeks in the same European rehab resort for injured sportspeople (Dec. 10-29). Paradise. An exhausting paradise, though. All in all, I spent 11 weeks in that heavenly hospital, i.e. 3 full months, punctuated with immersions into real life.

Throughout the year, I relearnt to stand on my two feet, relearnt to walk, relearnt to run, jump, land, relearnt to juke, change directions, speed up and slow down, relearnt to cycle and skate...

I had to re-mobilize the whole leg, get back amplitudes (stretching/flexing), build muscle back...

The final exam is pretty encouraging. I am in the clear and it is still improving: the traumatism is still fresh!

My legs are the same size (which was still not the case one month ago) and almost the same shape, the knee is still loose but the stop is clear (means that the ligament actually grew back although not as tight as before), I got back all my strength (still less endurant and tonic) and almost all my amplitudes (still a bit rusty on the flexing). But I have the green light to work on that and do whatever I want.

Gonna miss the view...

My room.

Single room with balcony and bay window onto the ocean.

Sunset at 5-ish just when I finished my classes.

Seriously, would shower with the door open to admire the view!

...and the atmosphere

...and the people

...and the working like mad

...and the food